February 23, 2004
Bills Winding Their Way Through Legislative Process
Accountability is the key word in this year's session of the Alabama Legislature that began on Tuesday, Feb. 4. Emphasis on accountability is the result of the failure of Amendment One, which would have provided adequate funding for Alabama's General and Education Trust Funds, to pass a vote of the people last September.
Gov. Bob Riley had hoped to call a special session to consider accountability bills, but he did not succeeded in getting the votes to do so. Riley has filed a number of bills in the regular session, but these bills currently seem stalled, while the Democratic Party's accountability package (HB 44) continues to move through the process. To see a list of the Riley initiatives, go to www.governorpress.state.al.us/pr/pr-2004-02-03-01-agenda.asp. Scroll down to Higher Education Reforms to see those initiatives that directly impact higher education. Several items affecting retirees of higher ed are listed under Government Reforms.
The governor also introduced his proposed budget (HB 231) for FY 2004-05. It includes a 1.6 percent increase in the operating budgets for UA and the other System campuses; this is barely sufficient to cover a mandated employer match for active employee retirement and includes no funds to cover the cost of university retirees' health insurance.
Tracking Bills Through the Process
An easy way to track the movements of both HB 44 and HB 231 is to log on to the Alabama Legislative Information System On Line (ALISON): http://alisdb.legislature.state.al.us/acas/ACASLogin.asp. The menu on the left column provides links to "Bills." There you can enter the bill's number and click on "Status." Bills can be found by sponsor, in committee and other ways. You can print information on bills or save it to your computer.
For information on Legislative matters, call the Government Relations office in Montgomery at 334-262-2262 or go to www.governmentrelations.ua.edu.
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